Car Tech Video: Ford's Atlas Concept looks rough and ready

Car Tech Video: Ford's Atlas Concept looks rough and ready

2:42 /
January 18, 2013

Unveiling their vision of the future for the F-series trucks, Ford rolled out their new Atlas concept at the 2013 Detroit Motor Show.

-What's up, guys?
This is Antuan Goodwin with CNET.com.
We're on the floor at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show and we're taking a look at the Ford Atlas.
Now, that's a very strong name for a very strong truck.
This is an early preview of what we should expect from the next-generation Ford F-Series of pickup trucks.
Now,
the Atlas is powered by a next-generation version of Ford's EcoBoost engine.
There's not much detail known beyond that.
All we pretty much know is that it's gonna use direct injection and turbo charging.
It's also gonna use an auto stop-start system to help it save fuel when you're idling at a light, but that's the only part of the fuel-saving technology at work here.
It actually uses a lot of interesting active shutter technology.
There are shutters in the wheels that slam shut when you're at rolling speed so that you get less turbulence from those spinning
spokes and reduce the wind resistance and drag that you pick up when you're rolling.
There are active shutters in the front grill that slam shut to reduce a little bit of cooling but you get a lot more of a slick profile when you're travelling through the wind, and there's also a drop-down lower air damn that floods down from the front bumper reducing the amount of air that flows underneath the car, again, less wind resistance.
Ford's also working on a lot of driver-aid features for the next-generation F-Series driver including a
trailer assist that helps you reverse when you've got a trailer on you, a hitch-active assist that helps you line up the trailer hitch the first time every time when you're trying to actually attach the trailer to the truck and a 360 bird's eye view camera that lets you see all of the ground around the vehicle.
This is similar to what we've seen in Infiniti vehicles previously.
You've also got retractable sidesteps that slip up in and under the vehicle when you're rolling so they're not contributing to drag also.
Pretty much all of the exterior features of this vehicle are
tailor-made towards making this big hunk of metal as slick as possible when travelling through the air at high speeds.
The Atlas also uses LED lights all around for the headlights, the tail lights.
There are even some LED spotlights in the side mirrors.
Inside the cabin, we have a very concept-car interior with big blocky features and a lot of exposed metal, but the basics of the Ford SYNC with AppLink system, the Ford MyKey system, the Wi-Fi enabled dashboard integration, all of that's probably gonna be in
place for the next generation of this vehicle.
Well, I'm Antuan Goodwin with CNET.com.
We've been on the floor taking a look at the Ford Atlas pickup truck concept car.